Driving Norse: electric vehicle policies in Norway

The Nordic countries (defined in this briefing note as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland) represent the world’s third-largest electric vehicle market by share of sales, despite being far smaller in population than the top two markets, China and the United States of America. Norway is a prominent leader in electric vehicle (EV) policy amongst the Nordic countries and the world. In Norway, the number of new car registrations that are EVs is now over 50%.

Norway’s success has been driven by government leadership, creating a policy environment to drive a large-scale and sustainable shift to EV use. Norway’s policy framework to boost uptake of EVs has been in place since 1990.2 The country has the highest share of EVs per-capita in the world and is aiming for all new cars sold to be EVs by 2050.

By contrast, in Australian EV sales last year were only about 0.2 per cent of the total compared with just under 2 per cent globally.

Norwegian policies serve as a useful roadmap for OECD members suffering from lowuptake, such as Australia. A useful English language source on Norwegian EV policies is the recent International Energy Agency report, Nordic EV Outlook 2018 Insights from leaders in electric mobility.